Re: S&V article on HD discs. 4k downrez to HD media is better than 2k film telecines. (1 Viewer)

[Michel_Hafner]

Every film is made of grain particles, yes, but there is fine grain motion picture film that can be exposed so that a print from the negative is visually practically grain free (as well as the HD) without any digital grain reduction. When switching to 70mm it's possible to go even further and create a look that is usually reserved to HD video and digital cameras (extremely clean and visually noise/grain free).

 

[Brandon Pop]

I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to have grain visible on a transfer, personally, the problem is the grain may be more apparent on HD video than it would be projected from the print. That's why digital noise reducers are used. I like grain and think it looks organic, unlike HDCAM 23.98 based content that looks super sharp and grain free.

I was just pointing out that the grain can also become "enchanced" during the color correction process by adding contrast, controlling black levels, etc.

And while it is possible to use certain film stocks that have virtually no grain, once you enhance with digital intermediates the gain can become more visible.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

HD-DVD and BR set hard limits with their 8 bit and 4:2:0 color subsampling standards. I think the best 1080p on both we will see quickly with noise free computer generated stuff compressed to (almost) perfection. Better quality requires changing the consumer standard. Regular films will profit from some more refinement in the encoders. But stuff like Riddick will hardly look noticeably better 5 years from now on any 1080p with 8 bit and 4:2:0. I think we are much closer with HD DVD already to the potential max quality of the format than we were for DVD when DVD started.